Feature Request: Support for multiple Claude Code sessions with different accounts

Thank you for the suggestion! As an immediate workaround you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR env var to set the directory to keep your profile data in, e.g. you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/work claude for work and CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/personal claude for personal sessions.

I have written a simple bash tool to manage the keys for the default Claude configuration file for multiple projects.
I wanted this not just to separate work/personal but to be able to allocate API costs to different Anthropic Console Workspaces for cost tracking.
Hopefully someone finds this useful.

https://github.com/jonopryor/claude-code-api-key-manager

Thank you for the suggestion! As an immediate workaround you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR env var to set the directory to keep your profile data in, e.g. you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/work claude for work and CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/personal claude for personal sessions.

Doing that Claude Code fails to connect to Jetbrains Plugin. (even if I set the CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR on my terminal and launch webstorm from there)

Is there a permanent solution? Or something in your roadmap?

I really need that option to switch profiles between work and personal projects

Up, this is useful when i have given max plan from the company but I also have one for myself so I can separate it seamlessly

Hi. Looking for the same as well. This can help me better manage and use claude code without going for vm or separate lappy or logout and login. Thanks

was this completed? I don't see any mention of how to use it

As a workaround, you can expand on @isasmendiagus suggestion:

Thank you for the suggestion! As an immediate workaround you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR env var to set the directory to keep your profile data in, e.g. you can use CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/work claude for work and CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/personal claude for personal sessions.

and add this to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

_claude_with_profile() {
  export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR="$1"
  command claude "${@:2}"
}

# Personal profile (default)
claude() {
  _claude_with_profile "$HOME/.claude" "$@"
}

# Work profile
wclaude() {
  _claude_with_profile "$HOME/.claude-work" "$@"
}

and access it with claude or wclaude for personal and work accounts, for instance.

Remember that user files settings.json and CLAUDE.md will be unique for each account. But we can symlink them, I guess.

I have this in my .bashrc:

claude() {
    local config_value="personal"
    local claude_args=()

    while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
        case $1 in
            -u)
                if [[ -n "$2" && "$2" != -* ]]; then
                    config_value="$2"
                    shift 2
                else
                    echo "Error: -u requires a value" >&2
                    return 1
                fi
                ;;
            *)
                claude_args+=("$1")
                shift
                ;;
        esac
    done

    echo "Claude Code user: $config_value."
    CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR="$HOME/.claude-$config_value" command claude "${claude_args[@]}"
}

Use it with -u <name> e.g.:

$ claude -u work <other CC args here>

The <name> defaults to personal - that is, ~/.claude-personal/ as the config dir.

The only problem is that changing CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR seems a bit buggy:

• https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/2986
• https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/972
• https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/3833

I'm surprised there's no better built-in support for this.

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.